The seventh and eighth grade class of Edgecomb’s Center for Teaching and Learning spent three days at the University of Southern Maine, as participants in Maine’s 16th annual Model United Nations Conference (MeMUNC). The students researched and represented the countries of China, Cote d’Ivoire, Finland, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Palestine, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, Thailand and the United States.

They served in the General Assembly, Security Council, United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and the World Meteorological Association, and participated in the deliberations of the UN Special Session on Sport and the first-ever Middle School Special Session.

CTL students started preparing for MeMUNC in January, as part of the school’s current events program. They worked with Graham Parker, one of the program’s Global Educators, and their history teacher, Anne Atwell-McLeod.

They learned UN rules of procedure, practiced debating and negotiating, conducted research about their assigned countries, and prepared position papers about their countries’ stances on a range of issues. Those issues included child labor, rights of indigenous people, politicization of sport, rights of refugees, natural disasters, politics of space, and international crisis response.

Of the nearly 500 students in attendance at MeMUNC, most of them high schoolers, about two dozen received awards at the closing ceremonies — including six CTL students. 

As delegates on high school committees, eighth grader Payton Sullivan of Brunswick received an Honorable Mention for her work on the Security Council, and eighth grader Teddy Matel of Round Pond received a Distinguished Delegate Award for his contributions to the Special Session on Sport.

On the Middle School Special Session, seventh grader Jacob Stafford of Alna and eighth grader Charlotte Collins of Woolwich received honorable mentions, eighth grader Sophia Stafford of Alna won a Distinguished Delegate Award, and seventh grader Ridgely Kelly of Bremen received the committee’s top honor, the Diplomacy Award.

This is the third year CTL students have participated in MeMUNC; the school’s seventh and eighth graders were the first-ever middle school students to take part in the conference.

The students were thrilled to participate in this invaluable opportunity to act as global citizens, hone their debate and negotiation skills, and gain insight into what it takes to achieve consensus, make progress and drive political and social change.